BATTLE OF INDO-CHINA: Offensive That Failed

In Paris, General de Lattre de
Tassigny read the news with pursed lips: the expected offensive had
come; 30,000 Viet Minh Communists were attacking the eastern end of the
highway between Hanoi and the port of Haiphong. Already, the French had
lost four small outposts along Route Coloniale No. 18.

De Lattre wasted no time. With his government's promise of 15,000 picked
reinforcements soon to come, he boarded his Constellation for
Indo-China. As he flew over India, the news from IndoChina was bad: the
Reds had come close enough to cut...